The Reaper

It is almost time, tomorrow we will see who would be getting sent to the reaper. It is a mandatory contest for all children between 7-16. They pick 4 names and those kids go to the Reaper, and they don't come back. They are never seen or heard from again. Some people say they are killed, others think they are sent to a special school, but I think that they are tortured for most of their lives until they get old enough that the Reaper is bored with them.

The sun is out and the sky looks absolutely beautiful, but I can't enjoy it. How could I enjoy anything today? I head over to town square for the drawing. All I can do is hope it isn't me or Kat. Kat is my little sister. I don't have to worry about my big brother Mac. He is too old to be in the drawing.

A funny looking man walks up on a stage. He has a smile on his face. It feels as though it is meant to be an evil smile, but behind it I sense his fear. He is just as afraid as the rest of us.

"Attention please," he calls out through a microphone, "I will now draw the names of 4 brave children who will be sent to the Reaper immediatly after. They will have a total of 5 minutes to say goodbye to their families." He draws the names out one by one before listing them all.

"Kat Sunshine, Cato Brown, George Smith, and Ray Sunshine," says the man. I am stunned siblings have never been drawn together and now Kat and I both have to go to the Reaper. Mac runs over to us and holds us tightly.

"Promise me you'll do everything you can to find your way back to me," he tells us before some guards come over to take us to the Reaper. We get on a train. The train has almost everything you can imagine a train having.

"Enjoy it while you can," says one of the guards. We find a room with beanbags and a small fireplace and we sit down. Cato walks in.

"What do you think is going to happen to us?" he asks us.

"I'm not sure," I tell him, "but we have to find a way out of here."

"There's no way out so we may as well accept our deaths and enjoy this while we can," says George as he walks into the room and sits down on a nearby beanbag.

"Well I can tell you right now who going to die then," says Cato.

"Oh really, who?" say George.

"You because the rest of us are going to escape," says Cato.

"Ok, then," George says before getting up and leaving the room.

"You could have been a little nicer to him you know," I tell Cato. Kat has fallen asleep with her head in my lap.

"I guess, but he used to bully me a lot back home and it's kinda hard not to try and get back at him before we die," he says.

"We won't die," I tell him. We can't die. It's vital that we stay alive for Mac. If we don't get home I don't know how he will live without us. The train is starting to stop so we all stand up on high alert. Except for Kat, she is still a bit sleepy. Cato looks at me with fear and determination. I nod at him, we both know what we have to do. We have to fight back.

A guard walks into the room and motions for us to go out a door. We act like we are going to follow his instructions, but as Cato walks past the guard he throws the first punch. The punch knocks the guard to the ground. I run up by his side with Kat behind me. The guard quickly recovers, he has obviously never had someone fight back. It has always been accepted that if you were going to the Reaper you were going to did and that was that. His eyes get wide at the three of us ready to attack and he runs. We head to the front of the train. Our father used to work on the railroad and he taught me a little bit before he died so maybe I can get the train going back home.

When we get to the front of the train I start pulling a few levers and directing Cato and Kat to put coal in the firebox.

Just as the train starts moving I hear a loud voice yell, "Stop!" The train stops immediatly on it's own. We get off the train as it starts to creak. When we get off we are looking straight into the eyes of who must be the Reaper.

His eye are like dark pits. They are cold and dead. He is taller than me by about a foot. He is wearing all black and hi face is a ghostly white color. The strange thing is that he has pink sparkly teeth. I look over at Kat he usually colorful face has gone white with fear. Then I look over to Cato who is looking right back at me. He has fear in his eyes, but somehow there is a confused expression on his face.

"Why don't you look afraid?" he whispers to me.

"Looks can be deceiving and he hasn't actually hurt us yet," I reply. This seem to open something up within him. He is no longer afraid, instead he looks slightly upset.

"What do you want?" he asks the Reaper.

"That's and easy question and it has and easy answer," said the Reaper, "I want your lives." Kat looks even more terrified then before. The Reaper waves his hand and mutters and spell of some sort. Suddenly we appear inside a cage. He must be really old school because he used and lock that requires a key. Somehow I can't help but think, "rookie mistake," but I hold back a smile as he dissapears.

"Well now we're all going to die," says Cato.

"Wow, such confidence in me huh," tell him, "I can pick locks you know." He looks at me as if to say, really?. I pick the lock and we all climb out.

"Where do we go next?" asks Kat.

"Home," I say, "The train never turned on the way hear so we just have to follow the train tracks." So we followed them all the way until we got home. When we got there Mac looks at us and blinks.

"Is that you guys?" he asks.

"Yes, we made it home," I say. We all collide in a big group hug.

After that Cato comes up to me, "I'm glad we're all alive," he says.

"Me too," I say.